Jamaica PM calls for international support to fight crime in Jamaica, Caribbean

By Michelle Nurse Last updated Jul 31, 2015

Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller addresses the United Nations Security Council and the UN Headquarters in New York on Thursday, July 30. In the background at left is Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Senator the Hon. AJ Nicholson QC, while at right is Jamaica's Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Courtenay Rattray. (photo via Jamaica News) — Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller addresses the United Nations Security Council and the UN Headquarters in New York on Thursday, July 30. In the background at left is Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Senator the Hon. AJ Nicholson QC, while at right is Jamaica’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Courtenay Rattray. (**photo via Jamaica News**)

NEW YORK, NY – Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller says Jamaica and other Caribbean countries need greater international support to fight global organised criminals and reduce crime, particularly gun-related murders.

Speaking at the powerful United Nations Security Council in New York yesterday, Prime Minister Simpson Miller said small countries like Jamaica require comprehensive debt relief and tangible development financing to increase their capacity to invest a greater share of their national budgets into effective crime fighting, border control and other domestic, regional and global peace and security initiatives.

The Prime Minister who was a panelist giving the Jamaican and Caribbean perspective at a Special Open Debate on peace and security challenges facing Small Island Developing States (SIDS) noted that in Jamaica and the wider CARICOM Region, transnational organised crime represents the gravest threat to peace and security.